This invention relates to the field of toy car tracks. More particularly it relates to acceleration devices for such car tracks which have a plurality of levels and directions available to the user through the provision of attachable accelerators at multiple levels which can be positioned to thereby accelerate the toy vehicles in one or a plurality of levels and directions.
Toy vehicles such as toy cars which engage and move about toy race tracks are well known in the art. Many such toy vehicle sets with cars and tracks have been produced for kids and adults alike in the last century. Such toy vehicle sets generally use two different types of acceleration means to provide power to the cars on the track to allow them to circumnavigate the track and to allow kids and adults alike, to race their respective vehicles. One type, generally known for years as xe2x80x9cslot carsxe2x80x9d uses a multiple rail system imbedded in the track which is electrified to communicate electrical power to motors mounted in toy cars which are also engaged in a slot on the track which keeps the cars in registered engagement with the power provided by the energized rails. Slot cars are generally used by older children and adults due to the presence of electricity and the need to engage the track set with AC power to run transformers which deliver power to the energized rails.
The other popular type of toy car race set employs cars which have no onboard motor or engine and move about the track and have no slot to engage the toy cars with the track but instead use a track with side rails to keep the cars on the track so long as they are not over accelerated. Such toy cars generally use inertia of the cars themselves for propulsion around the finite confines of the track. This inertial force is conventionally generated by some type of frictionally or other car engaging device which momentarily engages with the toy car thereby propelling the toy cars down the track. Such propulsion devices include rubber bands, compressed air, gravity, springs engaging push, rails, and rotating wheels which frictionally engage the sides of the vehicles moving about the assembled track.
The rotating wheel form of propulsion has been popular for years to provide the force to propel small toy cars around the finite length of an assembled race track which is dimensioned to maintain the toy cars on the track during positive and negative acceleration around the track. In recent years, with the advent of electronic video games, where participants view a screen and participate in virtual races, toy car sets have suffered a sales decline due to some of the inherent design aspects of such toys and their inability to provide complicated and multiple layer tracks which afford the user challenges in negotiating the course. Most such wheel accelerated race tracks employ a single set of counter rotating wheels which accelerate the toy cars moving between them. However the limitations of the rotating wheel style accelerator being in one place and on a single level of the toy track have limited the size and levels of the race track due to the limited inertia developed by the single level of acceleration. The assembled track which the cars traverse can only be as long and as high as the inertia imparted to the cars will allow since they must be able to make it back to the rotating wheels for more power.
A number of devices have been manufactured or designed in the past to address the need for such acceleration devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,641,704 (Sims) teaches an accelerator for unpowered toy vehicles moving along a miniature roadway which employs two lever mounted counter rotating wheels to engage toy cars moving therebetween. Sims however lacks the provision of multiple optionally engageable driving wheels, which the user may attach at different higher levels, which easily and removably engage with the power source driving the first set of wheels. Sims also lacks any provision for using the accelerator both as a crossover to change toy car direction on the track while concurrently providing more acceleration to the car on higher levels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,524 (Beny) also teaches an accelerator for toy cars which provides a plurality of pairs of oppositely turning wheels for engaging toy cars moving on a parallel track. However Beny is limited to the provision of acceleration to the toy cars on a single level and lacks any user engageable drive wheel assemblies which may be engaged at higher levels and driven by the same motor powering the lower level. The track taught by Beny thus limits the height and complexity of the toy track which may be assembled to one that has a length and height traverse which will allow the cars accelerated to make it back to the drive rollers. Tracks at multiple levels which would allow the toy cars to traverse complex turns and heights are severely restricted by Beny since the cars propelled at a rate to stay in the confines of the track would run out of power if taken too high or at elevations and multiple turns on those higher elevations.
As such, there exists a need for a toy car accelerator that will allow for the assembling of simpler or more complicated track assemblies to challenge the player and keep the player interested in the game so that toy tracks become as challenging as the virtual race of video games. Such an accelerator should provide a plurality of levels of car engaging propulsion rollers which can optionally be engaged. Such a device can allow for a single track, or through the provision of multiple pairs of powered rollers, multiple parallel tracks to enliven the race between two or more cars. Such a device with optional engagement or one or more power rollers at one or a plurality of levels would allow small children or new users to assemble a simple track with minimal height and complexity. Concurrently, such a toy car accelerator should provide for the user to attach one or a plurality of additional accelerators to the same power source and move the track surface to ever higher levels to thereby allow for the race track engaging the toy cars to be built taller and more complicated as the user""s skills improve. Still further, such an accelerator should optionally be engageable at different levels to accelerate the toy cars in different directions to increase the complexities of track assembly available to the user and provide power to the cars in one or a plurality of directions at one or a plurality of levels of height. Finally, such an accelerator should optionally employ a means to impart multiple levels of acceleration to toy cars moving between the rollers which is user activateable.
The device herein disclosed is an improved and user customizable toy car accelerator which is adapted for engagement with a track which has walls and surfaces dimensioned to maintain an unpowered toy car during its traverse around the assembled track. In its simplest form the disclosed device features a single track at one level which can be used with one or a plurality of cars. One or a plurality of additional sets of power rollers may be engaged with the lowest level of power rollers to allow for acceleration to occur to the toy vehicle at higher levels. The acceleration at higher levels is powered by the same power supply rotating the rollers at lower levels by cooperative communication therewith through a means of engagement of the upper rollers with the power source of the lower rollers as shown as a hex shaft on the upper rollers engageable with a hex slot communicating with the axle of the lower rollers.
In another favored embodiment, two parallel tracks are provided on the first level for use to provide two separate channels for acceleration of two or more cars moving in the separate channels. Acceleration on the level or levels above is provided by secondary pairs of rotating rollers spaced to engage with the sides of toy cars passing therebetween. The rollers on the higher levels provide a means for acceleration at levels above the lower level and are in the favored embodiment powered by the same power source as the two pair of rollers located on the lowest level. Power to counter rotate the two pair of upper rollers is communicated much the same as the single pair embodiment above in that the rollers on the upper level have a shaft or axle which engages with the rotating shaft or axle of the respective roller located below.
In the simplest form of the single or dual pair of rollers placed above the lower roller accelerators the rollers could simply be engaged on an axle which engages with the axle of the lower roller and essentially plugs into it. Upper portions of track would engage with a mount at the upper level and thereby operatively pass the toy cars through the rollers for acceleration. Or, the upper rollers can also be engaged in a housing that holds them properly spaced and the entire housing holding the two or four upper rollers would engage upon the lower housing holding the lower rollers with the upper rollers engaging the power of the lower rollers. This favored embodiment with the upper housing would allow for easy engagement of the upper power rollers as one or two pairs and hold them in place and also provide the adaptive engagement for one or two tracks above the lower tracks. Also, using the upper housing would allow for the provision of gearing the change the direction of propulsion of the cars passing through the upper track or tracks and make the upper track a crossover, thereby providing another way to complicate the track for the user to provide a more exciting race.
An object of this invention is the provision of a toy car accelerator which allows the user to assemble one or a plurality of additional upper accelerators above the accelerators on a first layer.
Another object of this invention is the provision of such an accelerator which has the upper power rollers engage the same power source rotation as the lower power imparting rollers, thereby simplifying the assembly and manufacture thereof.
An additional object of this invention is the provision of such a toy car accelerator which can provide power toy vehicles on one or a plurality of upper level roadways.
Yet another object of this invention is the provision of a toy car accelerator which provides upper levels of toy acceleration which may attach using a housing which may provide acceleration to the toy cars in a different direction than the lower accelerators.
These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of the construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.